Friends in 8th, Enemies in 11th
by the queen of slurking
Summary: A look at the friendship between Hanna and Mona. T because I'm paranoid


**Friends in Eighth, Enemies in Eleventh**

**A/N: I own nothing. Reviews are welcome and much appreciated.**

Mona first approached Hanna in eighth grade. By this point, Ali had been missing for months and presumed dead.

At first, Mona had genuinely wanted to be friends with Hanna. She needed to convince herself of that, in order to make Hanna believe they should be friends. But of course, she had an ulterior motive: get to know Hanna really well, then use the insider information she would get to ruin her.

It was perfect: two dorks, working to change themselves. Intending to lose weight, lose the glasses for contacts and become the girls who were envied, not made fun of.

At first Hanna had been a bit apprehensive, since Mona had been one of many Ali and the others had taunted. Later though, she came to see another side of Mona that was hidden under the dorky outside. And really, Hanna was like Mona, a dork: she didn't really have much room to be judging someone based on their appearance. Besides, after Ali had disappeared, Hanna, Emily, Aria and Spencer had scattered. The glue bonding them was gone; without Ali, they didn't really have much else in common. In that way, Ali was the commonality for them. When she was there, they were all together.

Somehow Mona had known Hanna's Achilles heel: that she was insecure about her appearance. Really though, it hadn't been hard. You just had to look at Hanna fidgeting with her shirt or recoiling from someone's touch to tell she didn't love the way she looked. Complimenting her on her sneakers and a bracelet was generic, but she managed to look suitably admiring. And Hanna fell for it.

At some point in ninth grade, Mona came up with the perfect way to destroy Hanna. By now, she'd spent months trying to come up with the most creative way possible. She would stalk Hanna, and the others, sending text messages, emails, anything. Sent from a nonsense email address, a blocked cell phone number. Written in handwriting that resembled anyone's handwriting. And she would sign every note with the letter A. Mona decided though, that she had to wait a little longer. There was the chance that Ali would reappear one day, and that would ruin things for Mona.

Of course, the more time that passes after a person goes missing, the less chances are of them being found alive. Mona kept this in mind, knowing that if several years passed, there would eventually be a body found. Well, it was highly likely anyway.

During ninth and tenth grades, she kept one ear open for any news on Ali's return to Rosewood. It never came.

One day not long before eleventh grade started, a new family moved into the DiLaurentis' house. And evidently, the DiLaurentis family had left all their crap behind when they'd fled town. Mona had been passing the house, when she saw a box labelled with ALISON. Promising. By now, she almost certain that Ali was dead. It was so tempting to rifle through the box, see what she could find. She knew a lot about Hanna, and some stuff about the other girls, but it wasn't quite enough. She needed something more, that little extra edge that would flip the girls out.

As she deliberated, a girl walked out of the house towards her, carrying more boxes, and Mona was grateful that she'd been preparing a story for how Ali was her best friend who had gone missing. The girl introduced herself as Maya St Germain, and Mona managed to keep the pleasant expression on her face as they exchanged basic pleasantries. Maya dropped the boxes and mentioned how they had all been in her room-she'd been stuck moving them all out to make space for all her stuff.

A thought occurred to Mona: if she offered to help, the girl might let her look through the boxes.

Fifteen minutes and two broken nails later, the rest of Ali's stuff was on the footpath. Maya had taken the bait and told Mona that she could look through, taking anything she liked.

Bingo.

Mona rifled idly through the stuff, managing to seem as though she wasn't really looking for anything in particular. After a while, she came across a stack of notebooks, and flipped each one open briefly. History, maths, English, and science notes covered the pages. The last notebook though, was instantly different. Each of the pages had writing, but it all seemed to be diary entries. Perfect. She set the book on the footpath, grabbed a couple of novels for authenticity's sake and headed home.

In her room that evening, she devoured the entire diary, making careful notes. The most incriminating phrases leaped off the pages, and she started to piece things all together. Stuff that the girls didn't want known and would try to keep secret at any cost.

It would be excellent blackmail material.

There would be some difficulty with Hanna; she would have to work extra hard to keep acting like Hanna's best friend. But that would pay off in its own way, as she would get to see firsthand some of Hanna's dumber stunts.

As Mona planned, she made other notes of what she would need to do. She would have to learn to move faster and keep her breathing quiet. At some time it might do her good to befriend one of the others and send herself an A note or two, keep the suspicion off her.

She felt some minor guilt thinking about how she was going to be using Hanna, but brushed it aside. Standing up, she folded back her top and twisted around some, catching sight of the burn scars that still hadn't faded completely. The scars reminded her that she wasn't doing it entirely for herself, but for Jenna too. Jenna had been worse affected than her, after all: the girl had been blinded. All because of a 'prank' Ali had decided to play on Toby. Almost everyone else had been taunted by Ali and the others during sixth and seventh grades, so she was doing it a little bit for them too.

Others weren't so inclined to getting their revenge, but Mona was. Karma was a bitch.

School started a little later, and Mona looked forward to it. Everyday, she'd get to see the little liars and be able to record what they were doing. School made it easier to leave a note, slip it into a locker or a book. It was confined to a small area, and that made it easier to follow someone from A to B. Pun intended. And of course, when she was at home, it would be there that she could send the electronic notes.

Screwing with them would be such fun. They deserved it, after all. Doing things they shouldn't and thinking that they were going to just get away with it. Or in Aria's case, the ignore-it-and-it-goes-away mentality.

Let the games begin.


End file.
